In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 194: Goth v. Grunge In the 90s, Food Mascots With Video Games, 1960s Teen Idols(5-7-2025)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 194

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The differences between Grunge and Goth culture in the 1990s. Some food items or mascots that had their own video games. A few of the teen idols and queens of the 1960s.

Episode 194 gives you your weekly dose of the Gen-X nostalgia buffet!

We kick things off by comparing and contrasting two subcultures that 90s high schoolers might have known or might have been. Grunge and Goth seemed similar but how similar were they really? We'll dive deep into both of them, including what it was like as a Grunge kid in high school in the 90s.

Some strange subjects end up as video games. We go way back in the day to look at food mascots and food items that were turned into video games. There are also a few scrapped ones that you have to hear to believe.

This week's Top 5 is all about teen idols and teen queens of the 1960s. These were the celebrities that the youth of America gravitated toward. How did their careers turnout though?

There is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the fascinating discovery of the Tollund Man. 

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Hello, world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 194. May is coming in hot and heavy, and boy, do I have a lot to talk about with all you fine people out there. We're going to go back to my high school days of the 1990s and discuss the What were the differences between grunge culture and goth culture? We're going to go way, way back in the day and look at some food items or food mascots that either had their own video games or were rumored to be having their own video games. There'll be a brand new top five that are going to look at the top five teen idols and teen queens of the 1960s. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time capsule centered around the discovery of the Tolland Man. And if you don't know what that is, stay tuned. It's an incredible, interesting story. All of that is coming up right now on episode 194 of the In My Footsteps podcast. What are we going to talk about this week? Oh boy, the weather is great. I'm all caffeined up and hyped for this week's show. I will not be opening up a can of an energy drink like I've done before for fear of spilling it everywhere. You'll have to just trust that I am feeling good. I hope you're feeling good. Wherever you are, I hope you are settled in and ready for about an hour of Gen X nostalgia to bring you back to the good old days. I'm super excited because this is one of those shows where some of the things I'm going to talk about weren't even on my radar until a few weeks ago when I started putting together my notes for shows going forward. But we'll get into all that stuff. Before we get started, I wanted to take a few moments, starting off especially to thank my Patreon subscribers, Lori, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin. Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal, Matt, all of you, thank you so much for being my biggest supporters, my Patreon backers. I hope you all have checked out and enjoyed the newest bonus subscriber-only podcast on Patreon. Ironically, it includes the story of my very first road race. And it's ironic because tomorrow from when I'm recording this podcast is my first race in almost a year. Last week on the show, I mentioned I would give you a review of how the race went. And then I realized just because the podcast goes up on a Wednesday, I recorded on the Friday before. So I'm recording this on Friday. My race is tomorrow. So there's no review unless I try to predict the future and guess how I'll do. Don't worry, next week there'll actually be a review of the race, I promise. Getting back to Patreon for a moment though, coming up in just a few weeks is episode 200 of the podcast, Listener's Choice. If you go to Patreon, the first of the polls for you on Patreon to vote for what I'm going to talk about on episode 200, that is up. It's open for any Patreon member, paying or non-paying. So all of you that are on Patreon, go there and vote. If you're listening and you want to make your voice heard for episode 200, go become a Patreon member. You don't have to pay. Free members can do it too. We'll get more into the housekeeping part of the podcast at the end, as I always say. I like to give a little intro, but dive right into the meat, the main buffet. And oh, this week we have a fun topic to start off with, one that I hadn't thought of until recently, and then it was a lot of research to put this together. So we're going to kick off episode 194, going back 30-ish years to my high school days, as I try to tell you, or explain the best I can, what were the differences between grunge culture and goth culture. So let's get into that. I can only speak for me, but I believe that I was chasing my identity throughout the beginning of my life. I don't know you out there when you first found something that kind of spoke to you as far as what you felt you were or where you belonged. I've told the story ad nauseum from August 1991, being in the bedroom with my friend Matt Medeiros, may he rest in peace, hearing the first few bars of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. And it being this awakening. Almost like there was life before I heard that song and life after. It really made me feel like that was my group, my tribe, where I belonged. It was the summer after 7th grade heading into 8th grade when I first heard Nirvana and grunge music. I immediately began embracing the culture beyond the music. Mainly the clothing. Torn jeans, flannel shirts, the more casual shoe vans, airwalks. When I got into high school, I noticed there was another subset culture that was similar to the grunge culture, and that was the goth kids. The thing was, though, I knew I was grunge. Grunge music, that was my thing. Being mistaken for this other group of people was not what I wanted. It dawned on me a couple of weeks ago, the whole grunge versus goth discussion, what made up each. Those of you my age, little older, little younger, who were part of the grunge culture or who were part of the goth culture, this is going to speak to you as I kind of do an overview of both of these sets of people and specifically how it related to the high school experience. I started high school in the fall of 1992. I know, it's awful. But in the halls of 1990s high schools, identity was everything. Cafeteria tables seemed almost officially segregated by cliques. There were two alternating cultures that stood out, and that was grunge and goth. Both sides wore a heavy dose of black culture. But a closer look revealed they came from completely different worlds, musically, stylistically, and philosophically. So let's get into those, starting with the music. You listeners to the podcast know my depth of love for grunge. Grunge music exploded out of Seattle in the late 80s, early 90s, led by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains. It was aggressive, distorted, full of existential angst. The lyrics to grunge songs centered on alienation, disillusionment with societal expectations, depression, a deep mistrust of fame and capitalism. This was the sound of kids who didn't believe the American dream was meant for them. That may not speak to all of us who were grunge. I definitely had lofty dreams and expectations. But I was also growing up in a hardworking, middle-class family on Cape Cod. It was not Manhattan. It was not Beverly Hills. But it also wasn't the rural areas that don't have electricity or Wi-Fi or anything. It was literally in the middle. Goth music, on the other hand, had its roots in late 70s and early 80s post-punk bands like Suzy and the Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure. It evolved into a more atmospheric and ethereal direction with groups like Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil. Goth music often explored romanticism, death, mythology, spirituality, and the beauty in sadness. Grunge was rough and rebellious. Goth was haunting, poetic, and sometimes otherworldly. Does that sound like a good description so far of grunge versus goth? Back in the 90s, there weren't iPods. There weren't MP3s. So as far as hearing that music in the hallways of the high school, I don't think that was really possible because that would have been the biggest indicator that you were grunge or goth. Ooh, listen to that music they got going on. So the easiest way to kind of determine where you stood on the side of the fence was the clothing. Flannel versus Victorian decay. Grunge fashion, I know all about it. It was about rejecting fashion. It was anti-style. Built from thrift stores, army surplus shops. I never went there for my clothes, but the flannel shirts, ripped jeans, that was all me. I never was into the combat boots, baggy sweaters, band t-shirts, which is ironic because I love Nirvana, but I was kind of like, yeah, I don't want to promote that because that's not what grunge is all about. Clothing in the grunge style, it was cheap, easy to find, and most importantly, unpolished. It was about dressing like you didn't care what people thought because you didn't. I didn't buy jeans and rip them up and destroy them. But as they got to that point, they became more and more in style. I had pairs of jeans that looked like you would have stuck a grenade in there and it exploded and whatever was left was what I wore. On the other hand, goth fashion, it was deliberate and theatrical. Black was the dominant color, but textures mattered. You know, lace, velvet, leather, mesh. Makeup was crucial. Boys and girls both wore heavy eyeliner, pale foundation, dark lipstick. Some goths leaned into a Victorian or medieval or even fetish look. They might sport corsets, fishnets, and platform boots. Others went more minimalistic, spiky hair, torn clothes, and kind of a do-it-yourself punk patch. Even though it was two sides kind of the same coin... In high school, a grunge kid like me, I probably looked like I rolled out of bed five minutes before class started. Whereas a goth kid might have spent hours perfecting their look, all to be called a freak by the idiots on the football team. What about what we believed, grunge versus goth? Grunge attitudes were heavily nihilistic, but not necessarily intellectual about it. A lot of, whatever, it's all bullshit anyway. That kind of attitude, which I definitely had. I think that's also an overall Gen X thing. Apathy was the statement. Grunge kids tended to mock anything that smelled like effort. Pep rallies, school dances, dress codes. Success was viewed with suspicion. Authenticity mattered more than achievement. And again, I'm not saying this as every single grunge person had this exact belief system. But that was kind of the overarching point to the grunge culture. Grunge and goth kind of met up with that similar attitude, carrying a strong dose of disillusionment. But goth, the worldwide view was more introspective, artistic, even spiritual. Goths didn't necessarily hate school traditions because they were stupid. They hated them because they felt meaningless in a cruel and shallow world. With goth, there was a tendency towards existentialism, romantic fatalism, and a fascination with beauty in the tragic. In high school, if you were grunge, you might have skipped prom altogether or shown up in a flannel and Doc Martens. Or goth kids, you might have gone, ironically, dressed as a vampire, slow dancing under the glittering disco ball with solemn expressions. So we've discussed the differences between grunge and goth. There is some common ground between the two, which is where I think some of the misunderstandings about the differences come up. Despite the differences, both goth and grunge kids in high school were often seen as weirdos by the mainstream, the preppies or jocks or some of the rich families, the rich kids. Both cultures rejected the rah-rah optimism of 90s pop culture and the squeaky clean images of boy bands and cheerleaders. Grunge and goth were both about authenticity over conformity. But despite that, they expressed it in very different ways. Whereas grunge was about surviving the real ugly world by caring less, goth was about finding or creating beauty in that ugliness. In short, grunge people like me wore ripped up jeans because they couldn't care less, whereas goth kids wore torn lace because they cared deeply just about different things. So if you were a teenager in the 90s, whether you wore torn jeans and flannel or a velvet cape, it said a lot about how you process the sadness of the world around you. So those of you that were around back then, which of our tables would you have sat at? The grunge table or the goth table? And those of you younger, do you relate to any of these cultures? Because like I said, not everybody who was grunge or goth fit every single description there that I came up with when researching this topic. But a lot of them are true for both. I think my upbringing in the grunge culture kind of helps me now in my late 40s deal with just the weird and chaotic and pretty awful times that we live in. And I think the same goes for goth. Like when you were young, trying to find the beauty in all the bad. But there you go. Kind of an overview look at grunge culture versus goth culture. The main takeaway I have from this discussion is the fact that I started high school 33 years ago. I think that's the main thing I came away with. It's like, oh man, where did the time go? This week in history, we are going back 75 years to May 8th, 1950 and the historic discovery of the Tolland Man. In a peat bog near Silkborg, Denmark, two brothers, Vigo and Emil Hojgaard, were digging for peat, which was a common fuel source in rural areas, when they unearthed what they first thought was a recent murder victim. The body was so well preserved that the details of the face, including stubble on the chin, closed eyes, and a serene expression appeared almost lifelike. Authorities were called in, and soon it became clear this was no modern corpse, but a man who had died over 2,000 years ago during the Iron Age. Peat bogs are known for their ability to preserve organic matter exceptionally well due to their cold, acidic, and oxygen-poor environments. These conditions halt the usual processes of decay, allowing soft tissue, hair, and even clothing to survive for millennia. The body found in the bog was named the Tollan Man, and he was found curled in a fetal position wearing a pointed sheepskin cap, a hide belt, and a noose made of braided leather around his neck. Scientific analysis at the time revealed that the man had been around 40 years old at the time of his death. His last meal preserved in his stomach was a simple porridge made of barley, flaxseed, and other grains, typical of an Iron Age diet. Radiocarbon dating placed his death around 400 BCE, during the pre-Roman Iron Age. Now, one of the most interesting aspects of the Talon Man is the manner of his death. The noose and the position of his body suggest he was hanged, and many scholars believe this was part of a ritual sacrifice rather than an execution for a crime. His careful placement in the bog rather than being simply discarded indicates that his death held cultural or religious significance for the people of the time. After his discovery, the Tallinn man was carefully studied and preserved. His head and face were so striking that they became iconic images in history books, museums, and archaeological texts. His body was partially reconstructed and put on display at the Silkboard Museum in Denmark, where he still remains one of the most visited exhibits. The discovery of the Talon Man provided a rare, humanizing window into life and death in Iron Age Europe, because unlike pottery shards or weapons, an actual body tells a deeply personal story, one that connects the modern world with its ancient roots. His peaceful expression continues to fascinate both scholars and the public, reminding us of the enduring mystery of how and why he died. The Tallinn Man is more than just an archaeological specimen. He's a symbol of humanity's deep past. His discovery sparked renewed interest in bog bodies, the study of prehistoric European cultures. As scientists continue to analyze his remains with ever-advancing technology, new insights emerge about ancient diets, health, and social structures. The Tallin' Man stands as a quiet, poignant messenger from a forgotten world, reminding us of how much we have yet to learn about our ancestors and how much they still have to teach us. And that man, the Tallin' Man, was discovered in a peat bog 75 years ago this week in history. Speaking of fascinating things you can find in a peat bug, I have just discovered a brand new time capsule where at the same date, the Tallin' Man has been found, May 8th, 1950. What was going on in the world of pop culture back then? Well, let's find out. The number one song was The Third Man Theme by Anton Karras. Obviously, this song was from the movie The Third Man. Incredibly, the song spent 11 weeks at number one. Anton Karras was a zither player, which is kind of a stringed instrument that you played in your lap. Despite his fame from the Third Man theme, where different variations of the song have sold millions of copies, he was always seen as a one-hit wonder, and Anton Karras never considered himself a celebrity. The number one movie was Cinderella. And you could get into the theater with a ticket costing 46 cents. This is the beloved musical fantasy, the Disney animated film about Cinderella, her wicked stepmother, and two evil stepsisters that are jealous of her. The film was a massive hit in its lifetime in theaters because it's been re-released a couple of times. It's made more than $180 million total. That makes it kind of hard to adjust that for inflation because I know Cinderella got re-released in theaters in the 80s. The film is also currently 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so it has stood the test of time since its release 75 years ago. The number one TV show was the Texaco Star Theater. This is the very, very early days of television television. As in 1950, only 9% of households in the United States had a television. The Texaco Star Theater, it was a variety show. It started on the radio in 1938 before moving over to television in 1949. It was hosted by Milton Berle, and when it crossed over to TV, Milton Berle got the nickname Mr. Television. At its peak, the Texaco Star Theater got ratings as high as an 80 share, meaning that 80% of TVs in the country were tuned to that show at the same time. And if you were around back then, May 8, 1950, maybe you've heard about the Texaco Star Theater show, and you want to get your own TV so you can watch Mr. Television Milton Berle, well, you're in luck. At Sears and Roebuck, you can get yourself a silver tone television, black and white, complete with a 12 and a half inch screen, which is smaller than the laptop I'm recording this podcast on, complete in this big boxy cabinet. You could get it for $199.95 or just over $2,600 when adjusted for inflation to 2025. And I know you're curious, what could you get for about $2,600 today when it comes to a TV? I found an LG OLED C1 TV, smart TV, flat screen, 48 inch screen, built in with Alexa, AI powered 4K gaming capabilities. That's $2,499. So it's still less than what this 12 and a half inch black and white screen would have cost you 75 years ago. That wraps up another time capsule, another This Week in History. We're going to stick to the early days of television for the new top five. So teenagers of the 60s, rejoice. We're going to look back at some 1960s teen idols and teen queens coming up right now. Some of the most fun times I have when it comes to this podcast is when I discover a topic I hadn't even thought about putting on the show. Because I've said since I began this podcast four and a half years ago, when I started it, I had enough material to probably do the podcast for four years. And that was if I did no more research. Obviously, it has been more than four years. I've done a lot of research. And on last week's show, I talked about some people who were briefly famous in the 1970s. And this included Leif Garrett, the singer who was considered a teen idol. And that's where I got the idea, oh, I should probably do segments about teen idols and teen queens from all these decades, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, eventually 2000s. That's what I'm going to do here. We are starting off the teen idol craze by looking at the top five teen idols of the 1960s. So just to put it out there, teen idol or teen queen, it's not necessarily that the people who I'm talking about were teenagers at the time. It's more that's the group they appealed to. Just in case anyone out there hears some of these names and then goes to Wikipedia to find their ages out and say, wait, they were 25 in the 60s. I'm no fool. I've done content creation long enough to know that there's always people that are micromanaging what you do. Trust me, I've gotten comments on YouTube posts if I've accidentally misspoken or had one bit of info that's wrong. But before I go on a rant, let's actually get into this top five. As with many of these top fives, they are in no particular order. And we've got some honorable mentions to kind of whet your appetite for who did you have on your wall as posters and such in the 60s. Did they have posters on the wall in the 60s? I don't know. I wasn't alive back then. So honorable mentions for teen queens and idols of the 1960s include the Beatles. because that one was way too easy. I couldn't leave them off. There was also Elvis Presley, although I would have put him in a top five for teen idols of the 50s, but I couldn't leave him off the 60s either. Another honorable mention was Bobby Darin. He was more late 50s, early 60s with his songs Mack the Knife, Dream Lover, and Splish Splash. Another honorable mention was is Paul Anka. He had the hits back then, Puppy Love and Put Your Head on My Shoulder. And the final honorable mention is Bobby V. He had 10 top 20 hits, including the number one hit, Take Good Care of My Baby in 1961. So those were the honorable mentions. Do you remember any or all of those? I mean, Beatles and Elvis are pretty obvious. They were almost too obvious where I was almost tempted to leave them off. And I was like, well, I can't because that's what you think of with the 60s. Let's get into the actual top five, though. We're going to start it off with number one, Ricky Nelson. Ricky Nelson got his start on the TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which starred his parents, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.

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Ricky

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Nelson started his recording career in 1957 at the age of 17. Fun fact is that Ricky Nelson's song Poor Little Fool was the first ever number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it was created in 1958. Between 1957 and 1962, Ricky Nelson had more top 40 hits than anybody besides Elvis Presley and Pat Boone. His star slowly faded after the cancellation of The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet in 1966 and a few film roles in the late 60s, early 70s. Number two is Shelley Fabares. Shelley Fabares was most known for her role as Mary Stone on the Donna Reed show from 1958 to 1963.

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People closer to my age might remember her from the TV show Coach, where she played Christine Armstrong. The show was on from 1989 to 1997. It starred Craig T. Nelson. She received two primetime Emmy nominations for her role on Coach. So some might say that was the peak of her fame, was actually in the 90s. But in the early 60s, she was on the Donna Reed show. She had a number one song, Johnny Angel, in 1962. She also had some film acting credits, including as Elvis' love interest in the film Girl Happy in 1965. Number three is Anne Margaret. Anne Margaret Olsen was kind of a big pinup girl from the 60s. I am sure a lot of you out there that were teenagers in the 60s, teenage boys, had a crush on Anne Margaret Olsen. Her first film was Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, and she received a Golden Globe Award for Best New Star. Other major movies that Anne Margaret has been in include Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, Tommy, and for those of us that are younger, she was the love interest in Grumpy Old Men. Much like pretty much all these other teen idols and queens of the 60s, Anne Margaret was singer and actor. Her biggest hit was I Just Don't Understand, which came out in 1961 and got into the top 20. So she wasn't a major singing star, but it was a little bonus on her acting Sunday. Number four is Frankie Avalon. Frankie Avalon began as a teenage singer in the late 1950s. He had two number one hits, Venus and Why. Those who grew up in the 1960s probably know Frankie Avalon more from those Beach Party films that he was in. Beach Party films were kind of a sub-genre of movies, mainly from about 1963 to 68, and they dealt with exactly what you thought. Teenagers having parties on the beach and some kind of easily fixable problems. It was a lot of singing, dancing, surfing, custom cars, tons of bonfires on the beach. The first film in that series, Beach Party, was the name of the movie. It was a surprise hit, which is why there were so many others that came out. The original Beach Party made about $2.3 million on a budget of $200,000. So obviously the film creators couldn't pass up a chance to make that kind of easy money. Now, I was almost tempted to put this next one together with Frankie Avalon. Those of you that grew up back then are probably asking where she is. Well, let's get to number five on the list of 1960s teen idols and queens, and that is Annette Funicello. She was basically partner in crime to Frankie Avalon in all those Beach Party films. Annette Funicello got her start on the original Mickey Mouse Club. She would have been one of the teen crushes of the boys in the 1950s. As with pretty much all these other teen idols I mentioned, Annette also had a singing career. She had a pair of top 10 singles with Tall Paul and Oh Dio Mio. Again though, she is mainly known for the Mickey Mouse Club and then in the 60s the Beach Party films with Frankie Avalon. There was even a comeback that I remember going to see in the theater with Back to the Beach, which was Frankie and Annette returning to the beach where they first met. They play husband and wife in this movie. It came out in 1987. It wasn't a major box office hit, but it got good critical reviews. But there you have it. Top five 1960s teen idols and teen queens. Those of you that grew up back then, do you remember all of them? Did you spend loads of money to go see their films or buy their albums? As I said, in the future, we'll be doing teen queens and idols from other decades. But I wanted to start with the 60s because that seems to be kind of when it all began. I don't know if they called them that in the 50s. There's no really good segue to go from 60s teen idols to this next topic. So let's just jump into food items and mascots that were made into video games. Sometimes as I get closer to 200 episodes of the podcast, I find it interesting the things that I start to research for topics. I feel at times it's like I sit back and think about the most random thing I can, or something that's so specific that there can't be an actual segment that I can mine information from. So here, as we go way back in the day, is an example of that. If I mentioned to you video games that were based on food items or food mascots, you'd be like, man, what in the world do you do with your time to sit around and think of ideas like that? And after I sat back and thought of my life choices for a few minutes, I would say, it's interesting to me. And hey, you're listening to the show, so maybe it's interesting to you too. What I wanted to do with this segment was not only look at the food item or mascot games that came out, but also a few that were rumored or had been in development and got cancelled. Because I'm a big fan of what might have been. So I've got a whole bunch of video games to get into here. I'm going to try not to rush through them all. Maybe there'll be a part two to this. One I can kind of gloss over a little. Is the game Yo! Noid? This was a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 based on the Domino's Pizza mascot, the Noid. If you want more information about this game or the Noid itself, I did a whole segment on the Noid back in episode 177. So you can go check that one out. We'll cross that one off the list. We can dive a little deeper into the Cool Spot game. This came out in 1993 for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Cool Spot was the mascot of 7-Up. So the 7-Up logo is the number 7, the word up, and that red dot in the middle. So they decided to turn the red dot into a character and bring it to life. Sneakers and sunglasses. As Cool Spot, you're supposed to collect other red dots and get enough, finish the level without getting killed. You're also the size of the red dot, like on the soda can, so the rest of the world is big compared to you. This game did really well. It got great reviews, and it sold more than a million copies. It just shows the power of that Cool Spot advertising campaign. In fact, there was a follow-up game called Spot Goes to Hollywood that came out in 1995. When it comes to food item mascots, the one that has the most games, or at least one of the most, is Chester Cheetah from the Cheetos brand of snack chips or puffs or crunches or whatever the hell you want to call them now. Chester Cheetah now is like computer animated British voice. In the 80s, he was a surfer dude. Chester

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Cheetah

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had his first video game in 1992 with Too Cool to Fool. And then in 1993, there was Chester Cheetah Wild Wild Quest. The idea with Too Cool to Fool is Chester Cheetah is trapped in a zoo and he has ordered a bunch of motorcycle parts, but the zookeeper got them before they were delivered to him. So that's the quest is to find these parts and build your motorcycle so you can escape the zoo. I mean, I talk about random things that I put together for a segment of the podcast like this. Imagine being the people that came up with the actual games that I'm talking about. A talking cheetah in a zoo trying to put together a motorcycle. That is a this is your brain on drugs line if I've ever heard one. There was even rumors about there being a third Chester Cheetah video game. Kind of an open world Cheetos kingdom game. But despite the popularity of Chester Cheetah and Cheetos, the games didn't sell well, so the third game was scrap. If Chester Cheetah isn't the king of food mascot video games, then the actual one has to be McDonald's. There was a game MC Kids that came out in 1992 for the Nintendo. Where you travel through McDonaldland to help Ronald McDonald recover his magic bag. I never played the game. I don't know what was in his magic bag. I don't know if the kids who help him find it would want to stick around to know what's in it. There was also a game only released in Japan for the Famicom that was called Donald Land. This came out in 1988, and it's a game where you help to rescue the McDonald Land characters. In addition to those two, there was another game, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, which came out for the Sega Genesis in 1993. This one stars Ronald McDonald in a colorful fantasy world finding treasure maps. It was pretty random and made more random because the game was made by Treasure, who was the same developers that made games like Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga. These games did well enough because any kid that's grown up in the last 50 years goes to McDonald's as a kid. Granted, over the last 10, 20 years, there's been less of an emphasis on the child-friendly characters. Like, Ronald McDonald has been phased out a lot. Back in my day, there was all of those characters, so I could see video games based around them being popular. An interesting example of Striking While the Iron is Hot is a game that actually was cancelled, although it was almost finished. That was a game called The California Raisins The Grape Escape. This would have been for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was due to be released in 1990. Now, those of you that are around my age, when you think of the California raisins, the claymation ones with the commercials where they were dancing to Heard It Through the Grapevine, that is late 1980s, right? 86, 87. There's only so much of a shelf life of claymation raisins. So when they were developing this game in 1990, where you play as the raisins... It was kind of too late. If they had put this out for the Nintendo in 1987 or 88, it might have been popular. But in 1990, they realized, man, these raisins aren't popular enough. We're going to lose money on this. So they ended up scrapping the game. For the next one, we go way back to 1983 and the Atari 2600 with the game Kool-Aid Man. Graphics were not great for the Atari 2600 compared to now. Back then when I played it, it was the coolest thing ever. But you played as the giant red pitcher of Kool-Aid, busting through the walls to save the kids from the thirsties. Back then in 1983, I was playing the Atari. I don't know if I ever heard of this game, or maybe if I saw a commercial for it and asked my mother and she was like, yeah, I'll get you something else instead. instead of wasting my money on this. Kool-Aid Man must have been successful enough because other drink-based games came out, including the game Coca-Cola Kid, which came out for the Game Gear, but it was only released in Japan in 1994.

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it's

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a very rare obscure game where you play as a radical kid skateboarding around it is the quintessential stereotypical 90s attitude those of you that were around then If I say 90s attitude, you can see graphics and colors and just general mannerisms or whatever. You know what I'm talking about. So a whole video game that just sums it up. But there was also the game Pepsi Man. This came out for the PlayStation in 1999. And you play as Pepsi Man. Pepsi Man was the Japanese superhero version mascot for the Pepsi brand. Think like the Spider-Man costume, but blue, silver, red, like the Pepsi logo. If you've never heard of the Pepsi Man game, it's because it stayed in Japan. It didn't sell well, and there were rumors that an American company was looking to buy the rights. But it was kind of a generic game, a runner where you're running across the screen, avoiding obstacles. Going back though, McDonald's wasn't the only fast food chain to have video games based on it. There were actually several games made for Burger King. There was Sneak King, where you are the Burger King mascot trying to deliver burgers to people. There was Big Bumpin', where you are riding in bumper cars. And Pocket Bike Racer, where you race pocket bikes. These were all cheaply made. They all came out kind of around the same time, 2006-ish. And they were for the Xbox series of consoles. Any of you ever play any of those Burger King games? I hadn't even heard of them. I had to save the best for last, at least as far as games that actually came out. The most random food product to have a game was Chex cereal. There was a game called Chex Quest. This was a PC game that came out in 1996, and it was very much like the video game Doom, where you have to go around and fight the slimy phlemoids. This game, I don't know how much it cost to make, but it was actually released in cereal boxes in 1996. The game has developed a cult following, and there have been other Chex-themed games, mostly centered around the Chex mix. There were other rumored games that never got past the planning stages or concept art. There was a rumored Popeyes the Chicken Chain game in the late 90s. There was a rumored Mr. Peanut adventure game in the early 2000s that never came to be. There was an early 90s Taco Bell game that was based around Indiana Jones that they said it got released for the PC but was so obscure that you couldn't even find it even when it was out. So those are some of the most random food items and mascots that were made into video games. Are there any that you think should have been made? I mean, you had Coke, Pepsi, Kool-Aid, 7-Up, Burger King, McDonald's. I'm surprised Twinkie the Kid didn't get a game. Or maybe all of those old Hostess characters. It could have been like Marvel Avengers. Nostalgia is cyclical, though, so there is still time to make a Twinkies game. Come on, Hostess, get on that. But all that talking about food and food mascots has got me hungry. So before I shut down and go have lunch, that's going to do it for episode 194 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Thank you for making it to the end. Thank you so much to all of you who share this, who tell others, check out this wacky Gen X guy that talks about nostalgia. For all the craziness of my humor, I do try to keep these as structured as I can so that when you listen, you don't get to the end and feel like I've led you out in the woods and just left you there. The fun doesn't end there, though. Next week is episode 195. We are going to go to the movies in 1985, where I'm going to give you every movie that went to number one in 1985 and a little about what theaters were like. We're also going to talk about another topic I can't believe it took me this long to get into, and that is Transformers, the toys, the TV show. Oh, and we're going to have some useless early internet features. Think back to when you first got online and some of the stuff that was there then that you thought was important but ended up ultimately becoming useless and obsolete pretty fast. So that's next week on episode 195. But like I said at the top of the show, go to patreon.com. The link's in the description of the podcast. Vote on what you want to see on episode 200. It's open for any member on Patreon, paying or free. If you want to become a member on Patreon, $5 a month gets you access to the bonus podcast episodes, including the one that went up last week. Access to the remastered Without a Map livestreams. I do have a good free tier as well. I'm likely going to do some kind of a short-form podcast about my race that's coming up tomorrow from when I record this podcast. I will mention the race next week and give you kind of an overview, but I might do a little more in-depth, something for the people on Patreon, unless I get injured during the race. But, I mean, even if I get injured, I don't think I'll injure my throat so I can't talk. Unless there's people running the opposite direction and I just get clotheslined or something like that. If you can't get enough of me, follow me all over social media. Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky. Subscribe on my YouTube channel. I've got hundreds and hundreds of videos up there. I'm starting to work on some of the content that I got in March when I was on the movie set. The film that I did that Frank Durant produced. I've been holding that content back. I'm waiting until the film is out so then I can share it and it's not any spoilers. Obviously, I will have information about the film when it's available to stream because I know we have a streaming deal for it. Remember out there, this weekend is Mother's Day. If you are lucky enough to still have your mom in your life, make sure you call or visit if you can. I'm lucky enough. My mom is still going strong. I visit typically once a week. The older I get, the more I appreciate having my mother, you know, as my biggest fan. Because it can get to a point through daily life that you just go through the grind and no one cares. Sometimes it feels like none of your accomplishments matter or you're just kind of shouting into the void and nobody responds. So I love getting good news and being able to share it with my mother first because she's always been my number one fan. No offense to anyone out there who's big time into my podcast and my content because I appreciate all of you as well. And the older I get, the more I appreciate what my mother went through to help raise us five kids. I mean, for me, she a lot of the times had to play the role of father as well because my father, well, you know, Was not, is not, will never be a good father. So happy early Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. I'll be delivering my Mother's Day gift on Sunday. I've had a good track record of gifts for my mother over the last couple of years. I think this one will be right up there as well, but she'll be the judge of that. It's about time to shut this podcast down. I've had a lot of big trucks going by my window and there's been a lot of pausing the recording so that you don't hear just rumblings of trucks going by the house. So before I get out of here, remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again to all of you for tuning in. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, but you already knew that. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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